Salia Luthier
Salia Luthier is the tritagonist. She is Viola's best friend, comrade, and confidant, and is often seen assisting her and the revolution in various ways. Her character color is green. Salia's true occupation is largely unknown - she appears to be a high-class socialite with a significant amount of money and connections, but she also demonstrates talents as a negotiator, translator, and politician. Etymology "Salia" can mean both "lady" and "princess", hence Salia's nicknames "Lady Luthier" (or sometimes simply just Lady) and "Princess"; both of these names also allude to Salia's high-class standing (it is implied she has a knighthood at least) and her effusive femininity. Salia can also be construed as a corruption of the word salience / salient, which means prominence, or the quality of being prominent. It could also be related to the Salian dynasty. "Luthier" is a word that refers to someone who creates or repairs and fixes wooden stringed instruments such as guitars, cellos, violins. Or violas. This illustrates Salia's relationship with Viola pretty succinctly: she's there to help repair or fix her. Luthier was also the name of an old French racehorse, which likely explains Salia's fondness for horses. If we also assume that Luthier is a corruption of "Luther", then there's likely comparisons to be drawn to Martin Luther King Jr., a noteworthy civil rights activist and minister. The Brotherhood Table around which she and her family assemble (and later she and the revolutionaries) is a reference to the "I Have A Dream" speech and its section involving "the table of brotherhood"; in addition, her coat of arms / imperial seal reads "justice, brotherhood, peace", a phrase that King Jr. utilized quite frequently. Personality Salia is a bright-faced, sweet-haired, ebullient young woman, easily the most outwardly optimistic member of the cast. Very little seems to get her down, or tire her out; her insatiable energy has even been commented on by others, both positively and negatively. She's shown to be very naturally charismatic and magnetic, given how many people loyally follow her or help her out, and she tends to earn the friendship or at least the respect of almost everyone she comes across. Salia is both easy to talk to and easily coerced into talkativeness; though she rarely lapses into babbling, some characters struggle to keep up with her. She's also shown to be very competent in spite of her rich girl persona, much like Toni; Viola trusts and depends upon Salia for her skills in negotiation, politicking, and behind-the-scenes work, and Salia is more than happy and capable to be the revolution's ambassador and hype woman. She is Viola's emotional foil where Caesar is Viola's ideological foil; whereas Viola is ambitious, melancholic, single-minded, and anxious, Salia is undemanding, vivacious, and easy to work with, almost always finding a way to maintain her cool. Emphasis on almost. There are more than a few subtle chinks in Salia's armor, ones that are not immediately apparent at first glance. Salia has noted hemophobia. This is why Salia constantly wears gloves - so that she can keep her hands clean, metaphorically and literally. Blood very noticeably makes Salia cringe or even panic somewhat, hence why she by and large avoids hospitalized places unless absolutely necessary; even the scent of blood can frighten her. Salia is somewhat of a coward - although she is far too risk-taking and helpful to be a true coward, her fear of blood and confrontation (and perhaps a desire to keep her identity on the down-low) encourages her to take up off-stage, behind-the-scenes positions, something a few characters have called her out on. She prefers letting others do the fighting for her, but is completely okay with helping the fight in whatever capacity she can. In spite of her gregariousness, Salia's manner of speaking is actually quite calculated and thoughtful. Salia has issues with both honesty and personal details; even if pressed, she will deflect personal questions and evasively try to change the subject, or will only provide a vague answer and try to let the matter fade away. Although she's quite good with keeping personal details and her past involvements a secret, she has moments of weakness and will slip up; if caught, she becomes terrible at backpedaling. This is partially why she forms such a potent emotional bond with Caesar - although he's clearly interested about her and her "story", he never really presses her about it or tries to coax it out of her, saying he understands the importance of keeping things you aren't proud of a deep-seated secret. Salia's secretiveness does makes her incredibly good at keeping secrets, a quality Viola in particular appreciates. Salia seems to have a well-hidden guilt complex, to the point where she blames herself for certain catastrophes even if she wasn't directly involved in them. Like Halos, she is depressed by the current, more warmongering route that Esperanza has been heading down, but she also secretly believes that the revolutionaries (and the opposition movement as a whole) have crimes and activities to answer for. Halos, however, feels like Esperanza has become amoral because of elitist reasons unrelated to him, and takes it upon himself to try and atone for the damage done; Salia believes that she has - directly or indirectly - had a part in all of the tragedy, but often unintentionally tries to use other, influential people to further her own, personal agenda of redemption instead of directly finding a route herself. Salia is somewhat clingy, but not to a particularly obsessive degree. She depends on other people, especially if she can trust them in and out; however, she seems to understand when others need space. And if she finds someone she both trusts and likes as a person, then she won't let go; this is likely due to the many, relatively friendless years she spent in exile with Viola consolidating the revolutionary forces, thus rendering her desperate for friendship and connection; she's even gotten quite good at flirtation and occasional sex appeal to draw attention (and hopefully potential friends) to her. Luckily for Salia, her charming, personable traits (and good looks) make things a lot easier for her than Viola, who struggles with connections due to her trust issues and complicated personality. Salia is quite religious; though she isn't religious to a zealous degree, she still actively reads the Phoenician bible and carries out some of its practices, although she admits she has gotten a bit "lax" with staying loyal to standard Phoenician tradition. Her interests include politics, fashion, photography, visual design, "retro" and vintage memorabilia, roleplaying, and astronomy - she also has a surprising amount of knowledge about various topics (even obscure ones), and likes to recite factoids (be they expository or just things she likes) to her associates every now and then. She loves sweet foods, especially cake desserts and fruity drinks, and seems to have gained an affinity for music and militaria from Viola.